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Cartons are available in a variety of styles, shapes and sizes. They will generally be of board stock but may sometimes be made from plastic sheet or corrugated.

The basic carton is made at the converter by folding a die-cut piece of board into a four-sided tube glued together at the manufacturer's joint. Some packagers running large format, high-speed or high-volume lines may dispense with pre-folded cartons and have their cartons supplied in unglued, die-cut and scored blanks. These flat blanks are much more efficient from a shipping and handling standpoint. On the packaging line, a carton former erects the cartons and delivers them to the cartoning machine (for product loading) as if they had come folded from the converter.

There are also cartoning machines available that wrap the carton blank around the product forming the carton in the machine at the point of packaging.

Some carton design have flaps on only one end, leaving the other end open, but cartons are usually closed at both ends. Flaps may be either tucked or glued. If tucked, there are three flaps, two minors and a major. The minor Flaps are folded over the carton end. The major flap has a tab that is tucked into the carton as it is folded in. In some instances, a locking tab is die-cut into the body of the carton.

This tab is designed to fold over and into a slot on the tucked major flap, this locking tab helps the major flap remain closed on cartons where the flap is long or where the product may try to force the end flap open.

Glue cartons are similar except there are two major flaps. After folding the minors, the inner major flap is folded, glue is applied and the outer major flap folded down on top.

Another important variation is the automatic bottom carton. These cartons have one end folded and glued closed in a special folded in a format. As the carton is erected, the blank unfolds, forming the carton with finished base automatically. No additional tucking or gluing is required. Automatic bottoms are usually used as an aid to manual erection and packaging but, may occasionally be used with automated cartoners. Automatic bottom cartons may be erected automatically on many standard cartoning machines by moving the gluing and folding guides out of the way or removing them.

Horizontal cartoners may be intermittent or continuous motion. The product is fed via magazine to a pick off station. The horizontal cartoners usually run at higher speeds, so the carton magazine needs to be longer to reduce the need for frequent refilling. Sometimes, to avoid the limitations of pushers, the magazine may use a conveyor to move the cartons to the pick off point. This allows the magazine to as long as necessary while retaining good control of carton pressure.

Al the pickoff station cartons may be picked out of the magazine by a reciprocating arm or by a continuously rotating orbital assembly. The orbital picker consists of a rotating disk with multiple horizontal arms each with vacuum suction cups. As the disk rotates, the arms counter-rotate on the disk. This allows them to pull the carton out of the magazine, pass them over a pre-breaker bar to begin opening them and then place them into the lug pockets. Some designs have an additional stationary bar with suction cups. As the un-erected cartons are rotated past the stationary bar, the minor panel is gripped momentarily to help open the carton.

After the carton is pulled out of the magazine, it is placed in the pocket formed by the chain lugs and conveyed to a loading area. If manual, this may be a shelf or table. More typically is an automatic loading conveyor. This is a conveyor consisting of a series of three-sided pockets that run synchronously and aligned with the carton. Product is loaded into the pockets and, as both travel along the cartoner, a cam-actuated pusher pushes the product from the pocket into the carton. This way, a single product or multiple products can be put into the pack. Placement of the products into the pocket may be manual, automated or combination. A benefit to the pocket and pusher is that if the product and the carton are a tight fit, a funnel can be used to help guide the product in. Pushing rather than dropping the products also keep them grouped correctly.

After loading the minor flaps then the major flap(s) are folded and tucked or closed with the glue, the ends are normally closed simultaneously after loading.